Lauren Semivan's work is wonderfully....confusing! One of my favorite things about her work is that if you were to simply come across it, in a setting with no context, you would have no idea what exactly it is that you are looking at. When disregarding the title of the pieces and the explanations she gave in class, one can look at her work and get lost in the many possibilities of what it is that they are seeing.
At times I personally see a charcoal drawing, perfectly shaded and rigid in the areas needed. Other times I see a "still-life photography" style of art. Either way, whichever route I choose to take the artwork in my mind, it leads me astray every time and I find that occurrence fascinating.
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| http://laurensemivan.com/semivan2012.html - Lauren Semivan |
One of the most interesting things about Lauren is how she lives outside of the world in a sense. Away from cities, away from modern technology she is able to come to peace in her work. Although I personally do not ever think I would be able to separate myself from the "mainstream" I think that the artwork that results from those who do can be very compelling.
As such a fan of high contrast grayscale imagery, I associate Lauren's style with clarity. How strange to see someone refer to it as confusing. But I like that description. The composition is chaotic, the movement controlled. That contradiction is a bit ironic, and sort of wonderful. Out of curiosity, how big do you think these should be, if displayed in a gallery? Life-sized? Miniature?
ReplyDeleteI think that if they were miniature they would lack a certain effect that high contrast exhibits especially when life-sized or even larger. I think these images would look beautiful on large canvases.
DeleteI agree that her work is quite confusing. I too thought that some of them looked more like drawings than actual photographs. Do you think that her work would suffer if she lived in a "busy" city like the middle of New York, or do you think that she would be able to find her niche? Personally, while NYC is very exciting and loud, it can be quiet and have those experiences she was saying that an artist needs.
ReplyDeleteI think that if she lived in a big city she would still be able to make art, but I think stylistically her images would change. Not only because of the different environment but because the found objects that she works with would drastically change as well.
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